Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Saturday the new prime minister must continue to protect companies and jobs, mainly through pay-outs and loans, to cushion the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic.
FILE PHOTO: Yoshihide Suga, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary and ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan September 2, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Suga, a frontrunner to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a leadership race later this month, repeated his caution over the idea, floated by some lawmakers, to cut the sales tax from the current 10% to mitigate households’ pain from the pandemic. The pandemic has deepened recession in Japan, triggering the worst postwar economic slump in the second quarter as collapsing global and domestic demand hurt exports and corporate profits.
Suga is widely expected to win the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election on Sept. 14, which was set after Abe’s decision last week to step down. The winner is virtually assured of becoming prime minister because of the LDP’s parliamentary majority.
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